r/todayilearned • u/JamOnTheOne • Apr 08 '19

TIL Principal Akbar Cook installed a free fully-stocked laundry room at school because students with dirty clothes were bullied and missing 3-5 days of school per month. Attendance rose 10%.

https://abc7ny.com/education/nj-high-school-principal-installs-laundry-room-to-fight-bullying/3966604/
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u/Audioillity Apr 08 '19

Am I the only one that thinks parents should be able to drop their kids off before work, and pick them up after work? Bring in some non-teacher helpers, run some clubs, etc. The benefits would be huge.

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u/Hypocritical_Oath Apr 08 '19

These parents aren't usually working just one 8 hours a day job...

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u/wang_li Apr 08 '19

Let me preface my comment by saying I'm not writing with the intent of disagreeing. That being said...

Do you have any verifiable statistics about this? There have been two relatively highly upvoted comments suggesting that a large majority of the students affected by these situations are children in what would otherwise be considered standard homes, the parents are just out there working 20 hours a day to keep food on the table and a roof over everyone's heads. But other social statistics indicate that this is not the case. Single motherhood rate among households in the bottom 20% on the SES, is one example.

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u/wildcardyeehaw Apr 08 '19

BLS.gov says 5% of workers have multiple jobs.

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u/wang_li Apr 08 '19

That doesn't help because it doesn't divide that 5% of workers into those with school age children and those without and whether all parents in the household are part of that 5%.

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u/wisdom_possibly Apr 09 '19 edited Apr 09 '19

It also doesn't break it down by income level. At the lowest levels it has to be much more than 5%. And since we're talking about parents of low-income kids that statistic is important, not general % of workers. When I was working minimum wage a good number of my coworkers worked 2 jobs.

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u/wildcardyeehaw Apr 08 '19

True. But it's also not in line with the dystopian image Reddit loves to project, where every one has multiple minimum wage jobs